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EP28 Robert Owens My Journey Into Pinball

The Pinball Studio Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 3m·analyzed·Jul 19, 2026
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 (batch) · $0.020

TL;DR

Arcade operator Robert Owens reflects on five decades in pinball, collecting philosophy, and venue economics.

Summary

Robert Owens, owner of Retro City Arcade in Evans, Georgia, discusses his 50+ year journey in pinball starting from bowling alleys in the mid-1970s through his current operation of a 50-game arcade. The conversation covers his collecting evolution, venue economics including licensing challenges in Georgia, the debate between coin-drop and free-play models, and his preference for classic games over modern licensed titles despite acknowledging market trends.

Key Claims

  • Robert Owens has been involved in pinball for approximately 50-51 years, starting around 1975-1976

    high confidence · Robert stated 'This is probably my 50 or 51st year of doing it. I started when I was bowling in a duck pen bowling league when I was a kid, probably in 75 or 76.'

  • Retro City Arcade pays approximately $9,000 annually for Georgia pinball machine licensing/permits

    high confidence · Robert stated 'we just paid our renewal for the new year. And that was almost nine grand for us' and explained the breakdown of master license, location license, and per-machine stickers

  • X-Pin announced closure within approximately 40 days but may not be closing 100% due to potential lawsuit

    medium confidence · Sterling reported 'they put out an email...that said I think like 40 days from now or whatever, they're closing their doors for good' but later received an update that 'they may not be closing 100%...they might be dealing with some type of lawsuit or something'

  • Robert's first pinball acquisition was Gorgar purchased on eBay from Texas for $500, with $250 shipping, totaling $750

    high confidence · Robert stated 'I paid $500 for it...Was shipping $500 as well? No, it was $250. So it cost me $750. I drove to Richmond Airport in Virginia and picked it up from a trucking terminal.'

  • The free-play arcade model generates better revenue than coin-drop for casual players

    medium confidence · Robert and Sterling discussed that casual players are unlikely to feed significant quarters into machines but will pay a flat fee like $22/day to play unlimited games

  • Retro City Arcade operates 50 pinball machines with 106 total licenses in Georgia

    high confidence · Robert stated 'I have a license for 106. We have 100 in the arcade. Right. So I have six extra'

  • 3D printing community has created replacement parts for rare games like Grand Slam enabling ongoing maintenance

    high confidence · Robert mentioned 'the 3D printing community had designed some parts that had failed on that game, so I was able to still get it back together'

Notable Quotes

  • “This is probably my 50 or 51st year of doing it. I started when I was bowling in a duck pen bowling league when I was a kid, probably in 75 or 76.”

    Robert Owens @ early — Establishes Robert's deep historical relationship with pinball spanning five decades

  • “we just paid our renewal for the new year. And that was almost nine grand for us...I don't mind paying a license fee...But to pay that kind of money for pinball machines, it's like, and then you got to pay taxes on all this. It's like, where's the money for me, though?”

    Robert Owens @ middle — Highlights the severe regulatory burden on small arcade operators in Georgia, a key business challenge

  • “I do think it's better...for somebody to come in and go, am I going to drop $22 in this machine? I mean, probably not...But with the free play model, they're like, oh, it's just 20 bucks. And then they can play as much as they want.”

    Robert Owens @ middle — Articulates the economic rationale behind free-play venue models vs. coin-drop

  • “I heard X-Pin is closing down today, and that really made me super sad because I buy a lot of their stuff...I just talked to him at TPFL at Texas Pinball Festival.”

    Sterling Martin @ middle — Initial reporting of X-Pin closure announcement with later correction about potential continuation

  • “I'm an old fuddy-duddy or whatever, but again, I like smooth games, good shots. You don't need 50 flippers or 12 levels of play field or whatever, you know, just a nice game.”

    Robert Owens @ late — Articulates conservative design philosophy emphasizing simplicity and playability over complexity

  • “I'll be 60 next week...I'm probably the oldest guy you've ever interviewed for your podcast.”

    Robert Owens @ late — Contextualizes Robert's perspective as reflecting decades of historical pinball experience

  • “with the old games, you knew if I hit this target, it's, you know, a thousand point...Now...you're hitting a pop bumper and it's 300,000 for hitting a pop bumper.”

Entities

Robert OwenspersonSterling MartinpersonRetro City ArcadecompanyX-PincompanyOld Town PinballcompanyElectric PlaygroundcompanySpooky PinballcompanyGorgargameAttack from Marsgame

Signals

  • ?

    venue_signal: Georgia pinball licensing costs approximately $9,000 annually for small arcade operators, creating significant operational burden that limits profitability for mom-and-pop shops versus national chains

    high · Robert stated Georgia renewal cost 'almost nine grand' and expressed frustration that this cannot be recouped, unlike in other states like South Carolina

  • ?

    operational_signal: Free-play arcade model ($16-$22/day admission) generates better revenue from casual players than coin-drop model, particularly for non-skilled players who avoid feeding continuous quarters

    high · Robert and Sterling discussed coin-drop inefficiency for casual players; Robert uses free-play exclusively at Retro City Arcade

  • ?

    supply_chain_signal: X-Pin announced imminent closure but may not be closing 100% due to potential legal issues; raised concerns about aftermarket component supply disruption in the community

    medium · Sterling reported X-Pin closure announcement with ~40 days notice, later corrected to indicate possible lawsuit delay; Robert expressed concern about losing quality aftermarket board supplier

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Generational divide in game design philosophy: older operators (50+ years) prefer simple rule sets and smooth shot flow versus modern games with complex rulesets, multiple playfield levels, and excessive scoring inflation

    high · Robert explicitly contrasted Gorgar/Black Knight simplicity with modern games like Avengers; criticized point inflation to billions as meaningless

  • ?

    collector_signal: Classic games like Flight 2000 and Attack from Mars remain desirable but difficult to acquire in decent condition; Robert unsuccessfully seeking replacements for previously sold copies

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.042

0:00
Hello and welcome to episode 29 of the Pinball Studio podcast. I'm your host Sterling Martin and today on this episode of my journey into business, I'm your host Sterling Martin. We've got Robert Owens of Retro City Arcade in Evans, Georgia. But first off, let's mention the sponsors. Old Town Pinball. Do you need a new or used pinball machine? Just head over to his website, oldtownpinball.com. Also, the Electric Playground. Time to level up your game room with a new topper. Check out their website, teppinball.com. And last but not least, Spooky Pinball. Order their new dead ring underglow kit for any of your spooky machines that it works on. I think it works on most of them for the most part, so definitely check that out at SpookyPinball.com. Anyway, welcome to the show, Robert. It's great to have you, buddy. How are you? I'm doing good. Thanks for having me on. I greatly appreciate it. I feel like I already know you from listening to your podcast. Yeah. And following stuff you post and all. Awesome. It's good. I'm glad I got to meet you when we did our little trade the other day. Yeah, that worked out well. I got Rush and you got the Shadow. Are they liking the Shadow? Loving it. Awesome. Very popular. It's right at the front, so people are getting a lot of play on it. Yeah, I got mixed feelings from my members. Some are very sad that I sold it. Some are happy that Rush is here. It's like mixed feelings. It's a great game to have, though, and I was really excited to get it when I got it. But I was just trying to mainly build out my Sternwall a little more, and I'm like, oh, that's another game for Insider Connected, and this gives me a spot to put my newly purchased Galaxy. You know, I like having the Insider Connected, but our location is really, we have our regulars that use that, but a lot of people, families and stuff, they don't even know what it is. So, you know, it's not that big a deal to lose that. And Rush didn't get a lot of plays anyway. Right. You know, younger people, they're like, who is Rush?
2:31
Yeah, me having, me mainly only doing tournaments, everyone is into, you know, every single person's got an Insider Connected account because everyone's, you know, pretty deep into the hobby that comes here. But, yeah, I totally get that. You know, just your regular average player is not going to care to sign up for that and use it once every six months. Right, right. And you know a lot with us, people like the shadow, it's an attractive game. Yeah. And that's what people go off of. They go, oh, this looks neat. It's got some cool magic for back then too. I really did love the magnet where you shoot right in front of the brick drop target and it like slings it back there to lock it. That's a slick little shot that it has. The only problem with stuff like that with people that don't know pinball, they're like, well, the ball's stuck somewhere. And then they don't look and they don't see the ball in the shooter lane when it spits another one out. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I had someone the other day in a tournament and he's like, I shot the ball back there and it's stuck back there. And I'm like, the ball's in the shooter lane. He's like, oh. Yeah. My Playboy 35th that I just sold to when we did our deal, I'd sold that. Yeah. And that would do that. And it was very quiet. Right. So you'd lock the ball and it would just spit the other one out. Yeah. And people were like, oh, the ball's stuck. I'm like, no, it's in the shooter lane.

  • X-Pin produces superior aftermarket boards compared to Rotten Dog alternatives

    medium confidence · Robert stated 'their pricing was fair too, which I like. Yeah, I like their power supply boards and stuff. They were way better than anything Rotten Dog had.'

    • Robert Owens @ late — Critiques modern game design philosophy regarding scoring inflation and player comprehension

  • “I do think the whole point system is entirely too high. It's like, I don't think billions should ever be in pinball.”

    Robert Owens @ late — Specific criticism of modern scoring mechanics as excessive and meaningless

    • Black Knight
    game
    Rushgame
    Shadowgame
    Flight 2000game
    Firepowergame
    WHO dunnitgame
    Paragongame
    No Feargame
    Grand Slamgame
    Special Forcegame
    The Avengersgame
    Steve Ritchieperson
    Texas Pinball Festival (TPFL)event
    Kathleenperson
    Rotten Dogcompany

    medium · Robert stated about Flight 2000: 'I'd like to, I've been trying to get another one, but I can't find one that's in decent shape for a decent amount of money'

  • ?

    community_signal: 3D printing community creating replacement parts for rare/obsolete machines, extending playability of games otherwise unserviceable due to unavailable original components

    high · Robert credited 3D printing community with enabling Grand Slam maintenance: 'the 3D printing community had designed some parts that had failed on that game, so I was able to still get it back together'

  • $

    market_signal: High equipment costs combined with significant regulatory fees make coin-drop routing economically challenging; operators report needing 17,000+ plays just to recover $15,000+ machine investment before profit

    high · Robert and Sterling calculated that $15,000 Sonic LE at $1/play requires 17,000+ plays for breakeven; Georgia licensing adds $9k annually before maintenance and electricity

  • ?

    operational_signal: Georgia requires multiple licensing layers (master license, location license, per-machine stickers) creating administrative burden and cost; Robert has 106 licenses for 100 machines with 6 buffer

    high · Robert detailed three-tier licensing structure: master license for owned machines, location license for arcade venue, individual machine stickers

  • ?

    product_concern: Aftermarket power supply boards from certain manufacturers (e.g., Rotten Dog) output insufficient power, causing relay lag and flasher timing issues; X-Pin boards considered superior alternative

    medium · Robert noted some boards 'don't output enough power or something. And like the flashers that get going and they're not kicking like the relays moving slower'

  • ?

    historical_signal: Robert's 50+ year journey traces evolution from electromechanical arcade machines (1975-1980s) through solid-state and modern licensed titles, documenting generational shift in game design philosophy and licensing strategy

    high · Robert documented progression from Gorgar/Paragon through Black Knight era to modern complex games; noted Data East pioneered movie licensing followed by Williams (Addams Family)

  • ?

    venue_signal: Location players drawn to visually attractive games regardless of rules complexity; Rush underperformed at Retro City Arcade despite quality, Shadow succeeds due to visual appeal and prominent placement

    high · Robert noted people 'go off of' visual appeal; Shadow 'right at the front, so people are getting a lot of play on it' while Rush was low-play despite being 'great game to have'

    • 3:51
    So tell me, how did you get into this whole hobby of pinball? Where did it start for you? Did you play in arcades as a kid, or did you discover all this as an adult? No, no. This is probably my 50 or 51st year of doing it. I started when I was bowling in a duck pen bowling league when I was a kid, probably in 75 or 76. Nice. I had a bowling alley. Okay. And for the time, they had a huge game room.
    4:21
    And of course, when I first started playing, they had all electromechanical machines. Right. And so that's where I kind of fell in love with it. And then they started getting solid state games. They got Bobby Orr's Power Play, Evil Kenevil, 8-Ball, which we have in the arcade now, the Fonz. Yeah, I've always wanted to get that game, but I'd never find one that's in decent shape. Well, we were lucky. One of our customers gave it to us. Oh, that's perfect. And he gave us a Captain Fantastic. Oh, awesome. And they were both in beautiful shape. Right.
    5:03
    So, yeah, we lucked out and got that. But that was one of the first games I ever played as far as a solid state game. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, and it's nice. The nostalgia for me, it's nice. You know, a lot of people go, it's boring, you know, but. I like the older games myself. I kind of made full circle. So I started off with like all older games because they're cheaper to buy. And then I was getting into more of the modern Stearns and I was like, oh, these are the best games. And then I was like, actually, I kind of missed some of these older ones. And then I went back to having a mixed collection and I'm glad I did. Yeah. Yeah, and of course, we have a little bit of everything in the arcade, but for me, I love the older stuff because that's what I grew up on and that's what we played.
    5:49
    And of course, when I started hanging out in an arcade, which was right across the street from my house, of course, that stuff was new then. Now it's 40, 50 years old, but that's what I played and that's what we, like Gorgar, we grew up, when that came out, that's like, It's heaven. Right. It talks. You know, it's got a magnet.
    6:13
    You know, we thought that was the best thing in the world. And people look at that now and go, that's kind of a boring game. And it's a brutal game. Oh, very brutal. I agree.
    6:24
    But I love it. That's the first machine I ever owned as a collector. Nice. Yeah. Yeah, that was a really cool first machine to have for sure. Yeah, and I actually bought that on eBay. eBay, wow. From a guy in Texas. Yeah. And I paid $500 for it. Nice. It was in beautiful condition. Was shipping $500 as well? No, it was $250. So it cost me $750. I drove to Richmond Airport in Virginia and picked it up from a trucking terminal. Yep. Done that before. Yeah. And that was a great game. And I still love it. I play that all the time in the arcade. Just because, again, for me, it's nostalgic, you know, from when it came out in the arcade. And I can remember the day that they brought it into the arcade. There's a few games like that, and the second game I ever got was F-14, and I remember playing that one at the arcade. So, like, as soon as I saw that come up for sale, I was really into it. And one I still haven't owned, but I borrowed it a few times as Attack from Mars. I remember playing that a lot when I was younger. Yeah, a buddy of mine, he owns that. He has a beautiful collection. Yeah. And he's got that. It looks like it just came out of the showroom. An original one? Yeah. Wow, that's awesome. Yeah. I kind of think I want an original one when I finally get my hands on one. Some of those Chicago gaming games kind of scare me with like the massive boards on the bottom of the playfields. And I've talked to some of the people in the industry and they're like, yeah, those are great for production, not so much for maintaining them. Yeah, and, you know, speaking of maintaining, that was when we first got into this, I was scared to death about maintenance. Yeah. You know, because, you know, having stuff at home, little stuff breaks, but that's an easy fix. But the beating, the abuse that they take in the arcade, and I was like, you know, this is just going to be a 24-7 thing where things are broken and I got to work on stuff. But thankfully, I don't want to say it out loud, but we've been pretty lucky. We have minor stuff that we have to fix, but it's not catastrophic. Right, like I thought it was going to be. Now we have board failures or something on some of the other games, and I know that's going to happen.
    8:50
    The community's got pretty good, and even like a game I had, Grand Slam, like it's super rare. No one's going to make parts for it because it's so rare. But at least the 3D printing community had designed some parts that had failed on that game, so I was able to still get it back together. So I'm glad there's some of that going on in the background. I did hear X-Pin is closing down today, and that really made me super sad because I buy a lot of their stuff. Yeah, I bought a lot of boards from them. I really think they make some of the best aftermarket boards. Yes, they do. And their displays are obviously really nice as well. So they're done. Yeah, they put out an email, or I mean a post, I think it was this morning, that said I think like 40 days from now or whatever, they're closing their doors for good and their website's already shut down. Wow. So it's like, but I'm really confused what happened. I mean, I hope everything's okay because I was looking, they literally launched a new product a week ago. So it's, you know, if you were already kind of planning on closing down your doors, why would you release a new product? Yeah, but I hope the best for him because they yeah. And I just talked to him at TPFL at Texas Pinball Festival. And when I had my Grand Slam, they were developing the the driver board in that game because that game and I think Speakeasy use a different driver board than any of the other Bally's. So he wanted to do some testing with me at the time and I'd reached out to him and I never heard back. And I was like, all right, well, I'm going to sell this game. Is his name Steve? I talked to him because my special force, I was having an issue, and I got a board from him. And I called him and talked to him on the phone, just like me and you talking. Yep. He helped me out. I think that might be his name. I'm terrible with names. Yeah, I am too.
    10:41
    I got the CRS disease. I can't remember. Right. He's a nice individual, though. So tell me, after you found pinball in these bowling alleys and stuff when you were younger, did you continue to stay in the hobby? Yeah. Or is there something? Okay, so tell me kind of where it led after that. Where I grew up, there was a 7-Eleven on every other corner. Okay. And they all had pinball machines. Every 7-Eleven had at least two. Right. And then after 1980 when video games started coming out, then they would usually have a pinball machine and a video game. Yeah. So, yeah, and I had within walking distance, you know, a couple 7-Elevens to my house, and we rode our bikes everywhere. You know, we did everything. That's how we got around. We rode our bikes everywhere. Right. And so we would go to 7-Elevens and play pinball. And that's the one right down the street from me. They had a Paragon and a Stars there. Oh, nice little lineup there. Yeah, and again, you know, they were brand new then. Right. Those are new games. So, you know, now you look at that and go, Jesus, that's old. And a Paragon, I'd love to have a Paragon. Yeah, we've got one out in the studio. It's one of our members, Neil. He loaned that to us, and it's a fun game. It's definitely an ass kicker. Oh, it's brutal. It's like Gorgar. It's a brutal game. Right. Unforgiving, you know. Them scissor flippers, man, they'll drain you quick. But it's a beautiful game and it's something different, so I'm glad we got that in the collection temporarily at least. Yeah, so we play in 7-Elevens and then the arcade opened, which was right across Route 1. We lived off of Route 1 and there were a couple of shopping centers there. That arcade opened and that's where we were every day. Every single day we were there and the people became good friends. We'd go to their house, the owners. They had pinball machines at their house. They had a swimming pool. We'd go over there and hang out. And on the weekends, we'd stay there after they closed and we'd just play until 2 or 3 in the morning as teenagers.
    12:57
    Again, we didn't have a lot to do. You know, there was we I got an Atari 2600 in 1977 for Christmas, which we Kathleen put on display in the arcade. Right. In our display. Oh, cool. Yeah. But, you know, that was the only other gaming activity we had. You know, we didn't there. It's not like stuff now where you got 500 things on your phones and, you know, we didn't know what a cell phone was. Right. I'm so glad I grew up without a cell phone in my hand, though, because I got to experience some of these cool things, you know, Before everyone got glued to a cell phone. Yeah. And that's what we did. Like I said, we rode our bikes. If we were going to play, we went to somebody's house, we rode our bikes, we played in the yard or went to the high school and we played football or baseball or whatever we wanted to play, the whole group neighborhood kid. And so then the arcade opened and that's where we hung out. And that was our entertainment. And it was cheap. It was a quarter. You play a quarter a game. So, you know, now it's went up four times. Yeah, at least, you know, yeah. But I understand it with how expensive these pinball machines are. It is. It's, you know, and I guess it's all relative when you look back at it, you know, what the how much they were operators were paying back then. Right. You know, so you look at inflation and you say, well, it's probably reasonable, even though it's not because when I started buying games for myself, like I said, I paid five hundred dollars for. Right. You know, the one we have in the arcade, I paid $3,000 for. Right. You know, it's not. So I don't call that relative. You know, to me, it's like somebody, you know, kicked me in the nuts because it's like, Jesus, that's a lot of money. You know, like the whole collection we had in our house, you know, we had seven or eight games and I probably I didn't have, you know, $5,000 in all of it. Now you can have a 20-game collection and have $150,000. Exactly, exactly. And, you know, we have 50 in the arcade now. Right. And, you know, that's a hell of a lot of money. Oh, yeah. And I look at some of these arcades with over 100 games and I'm just like, what? Yeah. And then maintaining it. Well, and what kills me is, you know, it's all these new ones coming out. Yeah. People are buying premiums and LEs with toppers and all. And I'm like, how in the hell are they affording it? Well, especially if they're buying, say, the Sonic C, $15,000. If you're even doing CoinDrop, $15,000. That's a hell of a lot of quarters you've got to drop to get that back. And then you've just broken even. Right. And I'm sure you've done maintenance by then, so you've spent money on the game and electricity and everything else. I mean, you're really going to get to 17,000 plays probably before you really start making money. You know, and I know like in bars, you know, people are, you know, they're playing, they're probably paying a dollar at least to play, maybe a buck fifty. So but how many people in bars are paying that kind of money And then most of those are routed so they splitting that money probably with the owner of the machine Yeah I seen some like 60 splits and stuff like that Yeah, it gets tough.
    16:03
    Yeah, I've thought about routing pinball machines a few times, and I still think about doing it because I'm getting close to running out of room in my building. And I'm like, well, I could throw some out on location, especially some I've had for years that are more than paid off for. But yeah, in Georgia, man, they really hit you with all the fees and stuff. I've heard it's better in South Carolina. Yeah, well, Georgia, we were talking about that coming down here because we just paid our renewal for the new year.
    16:34
    And that was almost nine grand for us. Good God. Which, yeah, and how do you recoup that? Yeah. I mean, we're not doing CoinDrop. We're doing pay at the door. So if you just look at, I've got to repay that, make that money back, that's a lot of people coming in the door to pay that. So we have a master license because I own the games, and I get the sticker for that. And then because we have a location, the arcade, I have to buy a location license.
    17:07
    That's what I thought, yeah, because I talked to the Pinball Palace about it. I was like, so it's two different things and then your stickers for each and every machine. Right. But, yeah, imagine if you had like 200 machines. Yeah. Like, how would you survive? I have a license for 106. We have 100 in the arcade. Right.
    17:25
    So I have six extra, you know, that I can add or have leftovers for other machines if we, you know, bump up our counts. Right. But yeah, I wish there was some legislation or somebody that we could get together as a group and say, I don't mind paying a license fee. We pay $100 to Columbia County for our business license and then the arcade license, which is, that's not a big deal.
    17:56
    But to pay that kind of money for pinball machines, it's... Well, they're so expensive, like I said, and then you really want to charge so much for all the licensing and stickers and stuff. It's like, and then you got to pay taxes on all this. It's like, where's the money for me, though? Right, right. And if, you know, the gambling machines I get, you know, the poker machines in the gas stations and stuff, I get that. But for a mom and pop shop like we are, you know, to lay out that kind of money, If we were Dave and Buster's or one of these big national chains, that's just chump chains. They go, okay, yeah, we'll pay that. I wish it was just the decal price. Like, that wouldn't be bad at all. Right. And then you just pay taxes on, you know, what's earned. Right. Like, and then the sticker. Right. That's the end of it. Right. Of course, you know, we have county sales tax and then we have the state sales tax, which we collect from the customer. And then every month I pay that to the state. So that's not costing me anything out of pocket because we collect it and give it to the state.
    19:02
    But this other tax or whatever you want to call it, we can't recoup that. I mean, that's something we have to figure into our budget to say that's part of our expenses, like rent and electricity and everything else. And that's what we were just joking the other day about. You know, you break down what when people pay at the door, every piece of that money that they pay, what's it? You know, this portion is going to rent and this is going to electricity. And, you know, and then at the end, you hope you got, you know, a couple of dollars left over for yourself. I will say the free play model. I was talking to another guy with an arcade about this the other day. I do think it's better. I don't know what you charge at the door. Is it like a daily fee or hourly? Yeah, we do. It's 16 for one hour, 20 for two hours or 22 for all day. Right. So like a casual coming in, that's not very good at pinball. I can't see them feeding $22 into machines because after probably five games, they're like, not very good at this. I'm probably not going to keep feeding money into this. But with the free play model, they're like, oh, it's just 20 bucks. And then they can play as much as they want. As much as they want. Right. Yeah. So I think it works out. Oh, and I think ultimately it does because I said that too. You know, for somebody to come in and go, am I going to drop $22 in this machine? I mean, probably not. Yeah. Even all of them. You know, so even if you're a video game kid or whatever, you're not going to just sit there and feed quarters into a video game. Right. I mean, even me, like when I'll go to a CoinDrop arcade. Well, actually, I haven't done it in a while, but when I was younger into the hobby and not a very good pinball player, not that I'm good now, I would go through like $20 so quickly at a CoinDrop arcade. I'm like, do I want to do that again or am I tapping out? I think I'm done. So, yeah, yeah, I definitely like the free play model better at arcades for sure. Yeah, and that's, you know, if we were doing CoinDrop, there's no, based on number of plays, you know, even if we were charging a dollar, it wouldn't even cover my rent. Yeah. But if, just the number of plays that people playing, so that's. I think that works better like a bar where you can't, you can't keep track of who's playing games. Right. I did go to, for a while, this Pinky's Revenge place up in Greenville, and they did pay at the door, but it was a bar, so you could go in there regardless and hang out. But if you're going to play games, you can get a wristband, and all I can say is they did not keep up with that well. How do you keep up with all the people in the bar not playing the games? Who's playing? Who's supposed to be playing? And there's so many like corners and things you, you know, people aren't always visible from like the bar. And yeah, like that location, I probably would have just said Coin Drop. Right, right. And again, for that environment, I think because the more people drink, they're probably going to play. Yeah. Oh, I can beat you. And then it becomes a competition. And their clientele is like heavily pinball people. So that definitely, you know, gets it's not just people going in there for only a drink. Most people are going there because they have pinball. Right. So when did you so you played throughout all the years of growing up and stuff? When did you finally decide and say, hey, I want to buy one of these? Well, you did mention earlier your first machine, but that's 30, 30 years ago, 30 years ago when you bought that. Yeah. Now, did it lead to multiple machines after that? Were you okay for a couple years? No, I bought Flight 2000 was my next one, which is my, that, I love that game. We owned that. I wish I'd never gotten rid of it. Yeah.
    22:55
    And I'd like, I've been trying to get another one, but I can't find one that's in decent shape for a decent amount of money. Yeah. And that, I paid $800 for that. You know, drove to Pennsylvania to pick that up. And that's when we lived in Virginia. So it wasn't that bad of a drive. Yeah. Then I bought Firepower was my next one. And I was asking her when we were coming down here. I said when we went to an auction in Baltimore at the Timonium Fairgrounds. Yeah. And we bought, I couldn't remember if it was Doctor Who or Whodunit, and a jukebox. Huge 45 record jukebox. The thing weighed like 500 pounds.
    23:37
    And she loves to tell this story and it gets worse every time she tells it. Because they loaded the stuff up for us at the auction. We get that home and we have a F-150 pickup. Like, well, the pinball machine we can get out. That's not a big deal. But the jukebox, like, how the hell are we going to get this thing out of the truck?
    23:59
    So we had lawnmower ramps, you know, like for a trailer. So they're like almost straight up in the air, you know, to the tailgate of the truck. And I'm like, well, you know, we start trying to take that down the ramp. That thing's going to take, you know, it's we can't her and I can't hold it. Right. So we came up with a makeshift pulley system where I used a hundred foot extension cord and we tied it around the machine, the jukebox. And then she was the anchor and in the back of the truck and it was tied around her. And then I was pulling it down. Oh, my God. This sounds dangerous.
    24:40
    Yeah, it was pretty. I wish, you know, back then we didn't have video stuff going on. Right. It would have been a good video to make. But we got it out and we didn't damage it and she didn't get hurt. Right. That kind of reminds me of I moved some machines for an arcade one time and we rented a U-Haul. And those U-Hauls have, like, the smallest ramps. They are so narrow. And we were moving those damn racing games. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah. And guess what? It didn't fit up the ramp right. So that was fun.
    25:16
    Okay, I just got an update from X-Pin from my buddy or whatever. It sounds like they may not be closing 100%. So they said there'll be an expo. They might be dealing with some type of lawsuit or something, it sounds like. Oh, wow. Unfortunate. Yeah, it is. Well, I hope they stick around. Hopefully that's not the case, but yeah, yeah, I always like their stuff. But my buddy just reached out to them. Yeah, and their pricing was fair too, which I like. Yeah, I like their power supply boards and stuff. They were way better than anything Rotten Dog had. Yeah, and that's what I had to get for my Special Force was a power supply board. Yeah, some of the other ones, it's like they don't output enough power or something. And like the flashers that get going and they're not kicking like the relays moving slower and they're not kicking on and off as fast. But yeah, sorry to cut you off there. No, no, you're good. So, yeah, so that was that was just an interesting story for, you know, some of our purchases was that the jukebox in there. Yeah, that's hilarious. Yeah, so because I could we it was a whodunit that we got with when we bought that. And then I doctor who I could I don't remember where we got it. All right. No Fear, which I don't remember where I got that either. We have that in the arcade. To me, that's an underrated game. I've always wanted to own one. My buddy's actually selling one in Florida right now just because everyone's always told me it's such a good game, and I really like Steve Ritchie games too. It's fast as hell. The one we had in Virginia was super fast, and of course I eventually sold that. The one we have now is still super fast. One day I'll get one. Yeah. The theme doesn't do anything for me. Yeah. You know, and I, I'm not really big on theme. Right. That's good. Well, you know, and I'll just tangent here for a minute on, you know, this new stuff. And I realize now people, they want to, everything's got to be associated with a movie or something, you know, special or whatever. But again, because I grew up in the days of, you know, they made Gorgar, they made Paragon. Right. It's just a pinball machine. Yep. It's not based on anything. It's not based on anybody. It's like some of the video games back in the day. It's like Mario at the time. I don't care about plumbers. Right.
    27:34
    So for me, I just like seeing a game that's fun to play. Again, Black Knight, those games, that's what I grew up with. And when that came out, that was like the Holy Grail because you got multiball, it talks. Upper Playfield, Magna Save. You know, we're just wetting ourselves over that because we're like, this is the great, they'll never make anything better than this. Yeah. You know, I feel like Data East is really the one that started the whole licensing movies and stuff because then like it seemed like Williams was starting to make like Adams Family and stuff like that after they started it. So I feel like that's where it all started. I blame Stern. Yeah.
    28:21
    Yeah. And see, I'm an old Stern guy. The original Sterns, you know, like. Stern Electronics. Yeah. Because, oh, we had a big game, too. Oh, man, I've always won a big game. Yeah. And they had that in the arcade, and that was, you know, it was a wide body. Yeah. And I just love that back glass. It's so beautiful. Yeah. And, again, that game, just the shots on that game was smooth. Right. It was just a smooth game. And, yeah, for me, that's what I like to see in a pinball machine. I could give two rats asses about, you know. The themes. Yeah, I just I'm kind of weird about it. So like the old games, I could care less the theme. Like you said, they were all kind of, you know, just original type stuff. The newer Stearns, like for some reason or another, like the themes matter to me a little bit. And it might just be because they're ten thousand dollars.
    29:16
    But if I own like an arcade that was open, you know, Monday through Friday or whatever, I probably wouldn't care. I'd probably be buying things like Pokemon. But like Pokemon, I was like, I don't, I didn't grow up liking Pokemon. Well, yeah. And, you know, for me, that was, you know, I was grown. So that meant nothing. Pokemon meant nothing to me. But it sounds great for a location. Right. But we don't have that. No, okay. Yeah. We can't afford it. Right. You know, that's my thing. You can't buy all these games and still be profitable. With the, again, with the modern games, to me, it's like they're just trying to outdo the last thing that was made. Yeah. And I don't think that makes for great pinball, personally. I mean, you know, people will call me an old fuddy-duddy or whatever, but again, I like smooth games, good shots. You know, you don't need 50 flippers or 12 levels of play field or whatever, you know, just a nice game. And again, and I'm old, you know, I'll be 60 next week. Okay. So, you know, I'm probably the oldest guy you've ever interviewed for your podcast. I don't know about that. You know, the days of like, you know, Gorgar, you get, you know, ABC and you get a multiplier or you like the one, two, three, four. And, you know, it lights the pit. Yeah. So it's just stuff like that. It's simple. Right. You know, some of these games like like Avengers, like, you know, it's it's over my head. Yeah. And we own that. Yeah. It's fun to play. Right. But I don't, you know, like with with the old games, you knew if I hit this target, it's, you know, a thousand point. And of course, back then we're playing to get up. You know, you win a game at you get three hundred thousand and you win a free game. Right. We're putting money in. We want to win a free game. Now that means on free play, that means nothing. But, you know, back in the day, you were playing for the score to try to win a free game. Absolutely. And so in our head, we could, you know, I got to hit this or I got to, you know, do this to get this many points to win that. Right. Well, shit, now, you know, you're hitting a pop bumper and it's 300,000 for hitting a pop bumper. And I'm like, I do think the whole point system is entirely too high. It's like, I don't think billions should ever be in pinball. But the thing is, it really means nothing. No, it doesn't. The score means nothing. Well people get mad at turtles They like it low scoring I like compared to Godzilla Right But Munsters is the same way Right You know I mean you play forever and you go well I don even have a million Right
    31:55
    Oh, darn. I love the Munsters. It's a brutal game. Right. Brutal. I love it. I've owned it twice or three times. I forget. And now I want to own it again. I've been looking. I'm like, oh, there's two pros for sale. Should I get one? Ours is great. Right. And people, that's a game that everybody likes, you know, older people who knew the show and then, you know, kids, younger people like it too. So, yeah, I think it speaks to a lot of people. Yes, it's an old school show. A lot of people remember. And then a lot of people like these like spookier horror type themes and it kind of dips into that a hair. Yeah. So, well, it's like Walking Dead, you know, that, of course, we watched that whole series. I owned one before in when we were in Virginia. And that game was a that one I owned was fast. I mean, the one I have now is fast, too. But God, that thing, that was that was a brutal game. Right. And it still is. The one we have now is brutal. But I love it. Yeah, I love the play and I love the shots. Yeah, it has. And again, that's pretty easy to understand that game. You know, logically for me, I know what I have to hit to get multiball. You know, some of these other newer games, you know, it's just above my pay grade. Oh, I just learned, like, all right, that's how you start a mode, and that's how you start the multiballs, and I'm going to leave the rest of this alone because I can't retain all that. Right, I can't. Yeah, and I don't even try. I mean, for me, like, yeah, you're going to have to talk to somebody that's smart. Oh, it's funny. Like, since I run the tournaments, everyone thinks I'm an expert. I'm like, I am not. Like, do you see me winning all these tournaments? No. I'm like, go talk to those individuals because they're going to be able to help you out a lot better. Yeah. If you want to know something about an older game, I can tell you anything you want to know inside and out. Yep. Like we knew every slingshot, what the score, if it gave you 10 points or 50 points. Right. And we knew that. I mean, that was just stuff we knew. And like I said, now scoring means nothing. It means absolutely nothing. Yeah. I've never cared about the, like I was mentioning earlier, the Turtles, like it's a low scoring game. I'm like, y'all pay attention to the scores too much. Just know what a good score on that game is and shoot for that. And if you've reached that, you don't need to hit a billion. Right. Or if you've accomplished whatever you need to accomplish in the game. Yeah, yeah. Whether you got completed, whatever. Right. My problem is I don't know what I need to complete.
    34:25
    So when did you first get the idea of wanting to ever open up an arcade? Did you route games first or did you? No, no, no. We've talked about that. But again, with the whole licensing and all that stuff, that's just, it's too much. It's all I can do to keep up with the arcade, let alone have to. And the other thing is, like, you know, you're talking about bars. Like, we're pretty on top of, you know, if people are getting rambunctious with games or, like, beating the hell out of flippers or something. And I could not imagine. I wouldn't even sleep at night knowing, you know, that a couple of my games are in a bar. And nobody knows what's going on, you know, and they're just beating the crap out of me. Dumping drinks down at me. Oh, yeah. I serviced my buddy's games and I was trying to get the lockdown bar off one time. It was stuck with so much beer, but it makes a lot of money in that bar.
    35:23
    That's good. And, you know, it's funny because back when the arcades existed, you know, they weren't bars then, you know, no arcades were bars. Yeah, they were just arcades. It was just an arcade, you know, like the one I grew up in, they had a soda machine and a candy machine. Yeah, yeah. And that was it. Right.
    35:42
    Now, they didn't have all the fancy cup holders and all the other stuff. So we set our drinks on the, and they got spilled, they got turned over, you know, potato chips and stuff down inside. And so, but again, we're on top of that stuff with us. You know, we're not a bar. We just serve drinks and candy bars and shit. That's smart. Don't ever do popcorn now. No, we don't have popcorn. I've heard the greasy fingers just go around and touch all the machines and every machine's like slick and sticky. Yeah, well, she stays on top of, you know, wiping them down while we're open. Right. And because, you know, even just getting regular play from people, you know, they're sweaty and, you know, they get dirty. They get dirty quick. And we, of course, every day before we open, we clean everything.
    36:28
    Right. But it's tough, you know, and back in the day, you know, and you could smoke in the arcade. So when the arcade I grew up in and it was a big building, you couldn't sometimes you couldn't even see from if you walk in the front door, if you were in the back. It's just a haze of light coming off the machines. I wouldn't even see. I'd be like, is Sterling here? No, I don't know where he's. Oh, there he is. He's in the back. Yeah. Because everybody smoked. Yeah. You know, I didn't smoke, but. I don't know how I used to take it. Like, even when I was going to bars when I was younger, you could still smoke in all the bars. And, like, for some reason or another, it didn't really faze me. But now, like, I would die in there. I can't. That's one thing. Hot eyes would be on fire. Yeah. I can't stand to be around cigarette smoke. But, you know, as kids, we didn't even get to you. You had strong lungs. Yeah. Well, and it's funny because, you know, like my family, my mom didn't smoke, but everybody else smoked. Yeah. You know, we'd be sitting in the kitchen, which, you know, is probably the size of your studio here, and ashtrays in every room and everybody smoking. And again, even at the kitchen table, you couldn't even see the other person because there's so much smoke. And we just grew up with it. We were used to it. Yeah. But yeah, now I can't do it. I can't be anywhere near smoke.
    37:46
    So thankfully we don't have to deal with that. Yeah, I think that's pretty much over with these days. I think Savannah still allows it in a few places. I think you got to be 18 and older, which is most bars anyway. But I think, yeah, I think there's only two or three spots anymore here. Yeah, go ahead. And, you know, by then, by the time I was an adult and was getting into having to work, the arcades and stuff were kind of going away then, you know, because all the home video games were coming out. So true brick-and-mortar arcades were phasing out, and, you know, even the pinball manufacturers were going away. And so it wasn't, you know, really, I don't know when they kind of had a resurgence, probably in the early 2000s, you know, when they started making more pinball machines, I think.
    39:12
    It was kind of more of a thing. And, of course, obviously since. I feel like the spike system, when Stern started with that, things were really starting to. Pick back up. Yeah. Yeah, and then, of course, COVID, you know, that really, because in Virginia, we, I had written a business plan in 2018 in Virginia. And we were going to do it. I bought a whole shit ton of machines and I had a 24 by 36 four car garage. I kept all the machines in there. Perfect. And we were trying to find real estate in Northern Virginia was tough. Yeah, yeah.
    39:49
    And we were looking around. We had a couple prospects on things, and then COVID hit. And thank God, because they would have bankrupted me, because Virginia was, they were locked down for nine months on entertainment stuff. So we didn't do it, thankfully. Yeah, that would have been the death of it for sure, man, not being, because I mean, Pinball is something like you, everyone's touching. Everyone's touching, right, yeah. You're around people, you're right next to people. Right. You know, we're not going to do six foot. You know, you have to have a 50,000 square foot building. You know, you're doing a six foot apart. Yeah, it's impossible, really. Yeah. So that didn't work out. And I really got discouraged with that. So then I sold everything. Oh, no. Yeah. Yeah, we had nothing. I sold it all. And then in 2021, we moved here to Georgia. Right. To Evans. And we fell in love with it. And I was like, you know, this is a pretty cool little place. Yeah. And real estate was tough there, you know, to find. And it's expensive. Evans is expensive. That's the problem with here. Like, I've always wanted to do it. But up in Richmond Hill, like rent is like I don't see how you stay in business. Well, we it's it's tough. I mean, it's it's tough. We've you know, since the government shutdown in October, we we were doing gangbusters. And then it just hit a brick wall.
    41:21
    This summer has been pretty good for us, but it's been tough. We pay a lot in rent, but we've looked at other places in Evans, like a smaller space or trying to find cheaper. Some of it's double what we're paying for square foot. It's like, I better hold on to what I have. Yeah, and it's crazy. And, you know, it's tough. And small businesses for everybody, not just, you know, arcades, but everybody. Yeah. It's a tough time to. Yeah, in Richmond Hill, I see a lot of small businesses just go out of business because, for one thing, the rent's so expensive. And then, like, you know, it's like, I'm going to open up a coffee shop. It's like, is coffee going to pay that? Right. You've got to sell a lot of coffee. Right. And then the other thing is, too, with, you know, employees. Oh, God, yeah. Do you all have employees? We do. We do. And we're lucky. We've been lucky. I mean, since we opened, we've had a good group of people that work for us. That's awesome. But, you know, yeah. But if we had to have a staff of like, you know, 12 or 15 people every day showing up for work. Oh, I could. Again, I wouldn't sleep at night because I'd be like, who's calling out today? Well, I know so many arcades have to just like, you know, family run because, yeah, it's it's it's it's pinball is expensive. Then the rent and everything else, it's hard, hard to afford a bunch of. Well, when we when we first opened the first nine months, we worked every day. Yeah. Just her and I. Yeah. And of course, we were excuse me, we were in our small space, which was only fourteen hundred square feet. Yeah. And we were waiting. We knew we were going to expand. That was supposed to happen in a couple months. Took a year to do. So it was easy to manage, you know, because we could see everything from the desk. We could basically see the whole place. So it wasn't that big a deal other than having to go to work every day, you know. But I'm there every day. We're closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, but I'm there anyway working on stuff. So I'm there seven days a week regardless.
    43:33
    But, you know, it's my passion. That's what I want to do. And to me, it's not even work, you know, because it's mine. I know I'm working for me. Right. I'm not working for somebody else, you know, for slaving for them. So, you know, they earn money. Right. Yeah, it's for me. And I love it. You know, so, you know, they always say if you love what you're doing, it's not really work. Right. Maybe one day I'll own an arcade. We'll see. Right now I've got to do crane inspections, which I don't love. But it pays the bills. Right, right. Well, I was in law enforcement for 30 years. Okay.
    44:12
    It paid the bills. It was a good job. Yeah. I retired in 2016. It was a good time to get out. Okay. That's when I joined the pinball hobby was 2016. That's funny. Yeah.
    44:23
    But no, that's awesome. You opened up an arcade. How many years you been open now? It'll be three years in September. Three years. That's awesome. Yeah. We opened September of 23, then October of 24 we expanded.
    44:37
    So we were shut down for six weeks. So September 1 to the middle of October in 24 we were shut down while they did all the construction. Yeah, yeah.
    44:49
    Yeah, it's nice. I mean, I wish we had more space, but, again, we couldn't afford it. Right. I think that's always the problem of every arcade. I don't know any arcade that's like, I got another whole back room that has nothing in it. Right. Yeah. We utilize everyone slamming them together a little closer. Yeah. So when we, the small space, we had 1400 square feet. Yeah. And we had 48 games. We had. Holy cow. 24 pinball machines and 24 video arcades. Wow. And it was funny because when it was an old Huntington Learning Center. So it had the, it was a big room. Yeah. And then it had three small rooms. Yeah. Off to the side. Okay. And small, I mean like half the size of this. Wow. Really small. Yeah. Well, two were two were probably like half the size of this and then one was longer. Okay. I went up. I got six pinball machines. Yeah. Yeah. I put four in here at one time. I had four like that. This room was crammed. It didn't have all this other stuff in it. Right. So we did that and when the place was empty and I taped everything out, you know, and I, of course, we had a lot of stuff. He had bought all the machines and everything. And I'm like, well, I hope this is going to fit. And the fire marshal came and I told him what I was going to do. And I had put like painter's tape down. And he's looking at me, he's like, what kind of crack are you smoking? Because he's like, no way in hell you're going to do that. And then once we got everything in there and then he came back and he's like, well, I can't believe you did it.
    46:26
    So it was tight. We couldn't have stools. Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah, I guess. Yeah, because it was it was tight. Right. And and you always got to make sure you get the glass off, too. I've made that mistake where I start putting games too close. And I'm like, oh, yeah, when I need to get the glass off, I got to move a machine out of the way. Well, and the thing is, if somebody if people were there, I couldn't get the guy. I'd have to say, you know, you got to get out of the way. Yeah, it was it was tight. Right. And we were limited to 40 people in the arcade. So when we opened, we were doing like a wait list. People would come in and we're like, oh, we got an opening at 3, come back or give us your phone number, we'll call you. It was tough. It was tough. Well, that's why I do like a sign-up list for my place because it's not huge. And people are like, why do you do the sign-up? I'm like, because I don't want too many of you to show up. And I literally like, we just don't have room for you in the building. Right. And we would have 40 people in the arcade and it was tight. We had 48 games. Now, everything's multiple player. You could have multiple people playing in a game. But 40 people was tight. It was tight. And it starts depending on your air conditioning and stuff it can get warm in a building when you really start packing it out Knock on wood our AC is good And in that small space it was really good We never had an issue with that So do you have a bunch of arcade games as well? I know you've got pinball at the arcade, but do you have a bunch of shooters and classic arcades? Yeah, we had a shooter crisis zone and that went down and I got rid of that. Yeah.
    48:06
    I'd like to get them, but, you know, again, it's just cost. Right. And those, you know, those you got to have a CRT. And I got a whole, I got a closet full of CRTs and chassis. You know, if you know anybody that's. Yeah.
    48:20
    Needs some and wants them cheap. Right. You know, I'll sell them because I don't. I know the Pinball Palace has a bunch of CRT games. You know, he may need some from time to time. Well, when like my regular games, when the CRT goes out, I just put a flat screen in it. Yeah, yeah. Because, I mean, nobody makes them anymore, and then you can recap them or whatever. It's like, I don't know how to do all that. Yeah, and I'm not getting electrocuted, you know, blowing myself up. That's what I've heard. I heard it can shock the crap out of you. Yeah, it can hurt you, so I don't mess with it at all. We bought a house of the dead, too, in North Carolina. We went and picked that up, and in transport, something happened. And the flyback burned up in transport. Oh, man, that sucks. Yeah. So you can turn it on. You hear everything. You know it's playing, but you just can't see anything. That's the problem. So we can't find anybody to work on it. And so that's sitting up in my back room taking up space. Yeah, it's already hard enough to find pinball technicians. I have never even heard of like an arcade technician like in this day and age. Yeah, well, a buddy of mine, I have one guy that helps me. With my arcades and I have a couple other buddies that help me with my pinball machine. Yeah, I'll give a shout out to Clint. He helped me with my arcades and then Mark and Jeremy helped me with my pinball machine. Awesome. Yeah, they've been lifesavers for me. I mean, Mark's been with me since the beginning. I mean, he helped me out. His daughter actually works for us. Oh, cool. Very cool. It's her birthday this weekend, so we'll wish a happy birthday to Auburn. Yeah, so thankfully I have those guys because they're way smarter than me. Yeah, it's like Neil Wagner at my tournaments. I guess I'd call him my lead tech because he helps me fix it. I mean, he was helping me with Galaxy the other day. He's really good at reading all the schematics and stuff where I'm not so good at it. I can do all the soldering on the boards and stuff, but he'll be looking at it and be like, all right, switch out Q35. And I'm like, all right, I'll do it real quick. All right, now what? Yeah, Jeremy, he's an expert at reading schematics. Yeah. And he talks to me about some stuff, and I'm just like, what language are you speaking? I went to school for electrical, and I'm still an idiot. I'm just like, but I didn't pursue it. That's probably part of my problem. It's like I've kind of forgot like 90% of all that. Well, yeah, I went to college for computer science and I didn't apply that in my professional life. Yeah.
    51:03
    But yeah, I've wanted to have a few arcade games and that's kind of the problem is like parts and then the newer ones like Raw Thrills and all that. Like you thought pinball was expensive. Like some of these Raw Thrill games are like what, like 15, 20 pounds? Yeah. Crazy. That's crazy. Crazy. Yeah. So we've got a bunch of driving games, and of course they're used.
    51:27
    Knock on wood, they hold up. I mean, I've had to replace some CRTs, but other than that, those are good. We've got a Star Wars trilogy sit-down, which that gets a whole lot of play. And that's got a giant, like a 70-inch TV on it. Yeah, it's nice. That's a fun game. We got a Mannix TT motorcycle, dual motorcycle racing game. Oh, cool. Yeah. That gets a lot of play. The problem is, you know, kids like it, but you got to have a lot of weight in your ass to move, you know, to move the bike, to lean it, you know. And a lot of them, the parents are standing behind it, like leaning the bike for them. That's hilarious. I guess you wanted to have some stiffness because you don't want a huge guy to get up there and get flying off. Oh, yeah, that's funny. Yeah, so we have some original arcade games. We have about 12 or 15 cabinets. Yeah. Then I have a bunch of emulators that are in cabinets that got Adam Lamb up in Tennessee. He built like 25 of those. Oh, very cool. Yeah, and those are great because we have 60 in ones and then we have 15,000 in ones, so it has 15,000 grams on some of them. I had one when I was early into the pinball hobby. Unfortunately, a pinball machine replaced it at one point, but I was running out of room and I'm like, it's got to go.
    53:04
    Yeah, so people like that and most people, some of the purists don't like that they're not in original cabinets and stuff, but it's still the game. Yeah. Some arcade games are really hard to find. I thought Pinball was hard to find. I don't see many arcades come up for sale. And when you do, they're crazy money. Yeah. Or they're just falling apart. Right. Just beat to hell. Yeah. We had a guy gave us a Missile Command original. And that's in my garage in like 50 pieces.
    53:34
    What about the Redemption games? Have you ever done any Redemption or claw machines or any of that? Yeah, we've got three claw machines, and they do really good for us. I imagine those are on Coindrop. They are on Coindrop, yeah. Some people, she has to explain that, yeah, those cost quarters. And my Hercules is on Coindrop, too. Okay, yeah. Because I just didn't, it takes too much abuse on free play. Yeah, yeah. And we do 10 and up to play that. Oh, okay. Well, you know, number one, because you've got to have a big wingspan to play it in. Otherwise, it's going to be two players, one kid on each side. Right, exactly. So that's more of a novelty. I remember when that came out, that King's Dominion Amusement Park in Virginia, which was only 30 minutes from our house, they had that in their arcade.
    54:27
    And of course, back then everything was a quarter except that. That was 50 cents. But again, for us as kids, like, oh my God, this is the best things in sliced bread. It's got a cue ball for the pinball.
    54:42
    I've only seen one of those one time at a Texas Pinball Festival. But yeah, it's a wild game. Where do you even buy the cue ball? Is it just literally a pool ball? Yeah, it's a pool ball. That's all it is. You have a whole box of cue balls. Hilarious. Yeah. Well, we used to have pool tables. When we expanded, we had in the old arcade, we turned that into a pool room. Okay. Because everybody wanted pool and we put it in there and we had some regular people show it but it wasn't paying the rent. Yeah, and they're really big. Well, pinball is big too but pool tables take up a lot of real estate. Kind of like hair hockey too. Yeah, we had a Pac-Man smash. We had to get rid of that because that was mayhem. Right. Mayhem. Because that had 140 pucks in it. Holy cow. Yeah. Yeah, you start out, you got the regular puck you start off with and then after like 20 seconds it has a drop and it drops. Oh, wow. And then it does that every 20 seconds. It's like that pinball machine. It's not really a pinball machine. I forget what it's called, but it's got like 100 pinballs in it, and you just shoot balls like a fully automatic. Oh, that rapid fire? Yeah. I would hate to buy new pinballs for that game.
    55:56
    Yeah. Well, again, all that's just asking is for stuff to get broken. Whatever's in the machine, whatever plastics are in there. My buddy had two of them. I'm like, I think you're the only person in the world that wanted more than one of these.
    56:12
    Yeah. Yeah, for me, that's kind of like Orbiter, you know, the old Stern with the play field that looks like the moon. They've got that one at the palace, and it's cool the first time you ever play it, and after that, I'm good. Yeah.
    56:28
    They had that in the... And it's always broken, like the parts on it. Like, good luck finding any parts for that game. Yeah. Yeah, that was in the mall that was at or the arcade that was at the mall. Yeah. Aladdin's Castle, they had that. Oh, really? Wow. Yeah. That's an odd one to have. Yeah, well, you know, again, when that stuff came out, you know, most arcades and stuff, all the new stuff back then. Right, right. You know, that was everybody had all the new stuff.
    56:56
    Cool. Yeah. All right. Well, we're about at an hour. Is there anything else you wanted to touch on before we wrap it up? Well, I do want to just thank everybody that's supported us since we've opened, all of our friends and customers. Yeah. You know, we've had a couple tournaments. Will actually just won our pin golf tournament Thursday night. I saw that. I saw those funny pictures. Yeah. Yeah, he showed up with his miniature golf clubs, and he was decked out ready for golf, which was cool because actually a lot of people showed up in their golf attire. So it was pretty cool because we, you know, Abby, she's done, she's been doing our league stuff and any tournaments we have, she runs those for us. So, you know, we appreciate all the support we get from everybody.
    57:44
    Yeah, tournaments are fun and helps build the community and stuff. And I'm glad they're, I'm glad Will's making all the way out to your arcade to join you. Yeah, it's nice of him to make that drive because that's, you know, it's not like it's around the corner for him. No. But, you know, any suggestions you have for us, I mean, we've tried, the max we're getting is about 15 people, and I'd like to get, you know, if we could get 20 or 25 people. I really think with your crowd, which I've kind of spoken with Abby about it, I think the smartest route would probably be not to do a league.
    58:20
    Just because players have to play in 50% or more of those tournaments to even count. Right. So say you got a tournament player that plays a lot of tournaments and he's just coming through town. He's probably not going to play in the tournament because it's not going to count where if you just do individual tournaments like I do, people passing through are a lot more likely to want to participate.
    58:43
    Leagues work really good if you have a really strong scene that's locally and they're going to show up every single week after week and you're not really worried about the occasional people. But I try to pull people from South Carolina, Florida, you know, to come play in my tournaments. So I try to kind of avoid the league thing. I've thought about doing it multiple times, but I've never done it yet. The league's been good. I mean, we have our regulars and they show up. Yeah. But just trying to broaden that base. Right. And if there's any point people that care about points, all the people that didn't play in 50% or more aren't even going to count as value towards the tournament. Right. But, no, I think you are still doing a great job. I mean, I see you all's pictures. You all have decent turnouts. So, you know, just keep doing what you're doing. Yeah, yeah, we're trying. And, again, we appreciate the support from everybody and you, you know, helping. Again, thanks for. Yeah, Wills gave you all a shout out a few times on some episodes as well. Yeah, yeah, I've heard those. We appreciate his support. Awesome. Well, tell them how to get a hold of you on Facebook or email or anything and where you're located and how often do you do tournaments? Well, we're at 4446 Washington Road, Suite 7 in Evans, Georgia, just outside of Augusta. We're on Facebook at Retro City Arcade Evans and on Instagram and we have TikTok too. We have a TikTok channel. Everybody's like, you got to be on TikTok. I've got TikTok and I post there like once every three months. Well, you know, it's funny because just a couple weeks ago we had three different people came in on the same day because we asked everybody how they heard about us. Yeah. And they said, oh, we saw a video on TikTok. And I'm like, somebody had done a video and tagged us on TikTok. Oh, okay. Yeah. So, yeah. So that's where we are. And we'd love to see everybody come out and see us. Awesome. Well, thanks so much for coming on the show, Robert. It was a blast, and maybe we'll have you on another episode here in the future. Yeah, thanks, Sterling. Appreciate it. All right. Later, buddy.
    61:13
    Dune, Evil Dead, Jurassic Pins. Thank you. Dune, Evil Dead, Jurassic Pins. Keith Evaluate.